Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-16
THE HOOVER CLUBS. y

1t would appear that the old pretended
bugbear-assumed fear of conspiracy among
negroes of the South against the whites
is still used as political means by some OF
the people of that section. The full de-
tails of the gross outrages at Fairview,
South Carolina, are at hand, and show that
the whites pretended to be alarmed, but
with insufficient pretext for it, over per-
fectly peaceable and legitimate organiza-
ton of blacks.
Unskilled laborers in the South now
command 81 per day readily, and thus are
quite on par in the matter of earnings with
unskilled laborers in other parts of the
country. As the most of unskilled labor
ers in the South are negroes, their ability
to command this wage has given them
great encouragement, and very naturally
they group themselves together for con-
sultation upon the wage question, and the
progress and needs of their numbers.
These groups are called Hoover Clubs, "
and appear to be simply mutual aid and
cooperative organizations, without sin
gle element OF ofiensiveness or political
significance or improperly in them. They
exist under the same laws that guarantee
to other citizens the right to secretly, or,
in the open, to peaceably assemble and or
ganize for legitimate confraternal labor
or other purposes.
The white South Carolinans about Fair
view Jumped to the conclusion that there
could be no gathering of blacks that did
not bode i'll to the pale-faced. Accord
ingly they organized a species of "Ku
Klux klan," and sent mounted party,
which seized the Grand Secretary of the
Clubs at his home, and greatly to his sur
prise, and compelled him to give up his
records, roll of membership, etc They
then cited the chief members to appear
before the self-constituted Court and sub
NIT TO an inquisition of the most humiliat-
ing character At It's conclusion they we're
told that the clubs must dissolve that,
while nothing unlawful in the organiza-
tion> had been discovered, the fear of the
blacks in council was so great that the
whites could not permit it to continue.
Appeal to the history of the country
does not reveal any conspiracy worth the
mention against the whites among the
slaves or ex-slaves Oft the South. There is
nothing, indeed, in the annals of the South
to warrant the belief that the whites at
any time were even menaced by eonspira-
cieS Of the blacks. 1t is remarkable fact
that during period of nearly two centu-
ries, when the enslaved race" might have
conspired to massacre their masters"
they did not even make the attempt. Here
and there some spasmodic manifestations
of rebellion against the CALLING chain"
were made; but these never rose to the
rank of conspiracy or uprising, nor did
they even constitute an assault upon the
political liberties Of the South.
The result of the war of the rebellion
was to invest the black man at the South
with all the rights and privileges of Amer
lean citizenship. This decree of the ma
ton, unalterably written into its system of
laws, the Fairview mob of whites under
take to say shall be reversed or ignored.
1t is not because they really have any fear
of the negroes in a physical sense. To
charge that is to denominare them lack
ing in ordinary manly attributes. The
real reason fer the outrageous bulldozing
and shameful intimidation, is the fear that
the black men may get from under the po-
htical thumb of the Southrons. They fear
that as the negro has advanced indus
trially; as he has risen to the capacity to
discuss his rights as laborer, and to or
ganize cooperative effort to better his do
nestle condition, his intelligence NAV
advance to the plane of Independent po-
litieal thinking. They know that the
sequel of that will be broken
political South-the utter undoing
Of the solidity of that section.
There must be no organization.
no counseling, no cnmmuning among the
blacks that may possibly promote among
them political independence. That is the
long and short of the whole business.
There is nothing in all the testimony of
fered in the matter Of the Fairyiew out